(Photo: the path up to Mount Tai - the site of the ancient Feng Shan ritual)
Introduction
In a previous essay, the Sonoma Sage argued that Tian (translated poorly as Heaven in English) is a very close analog to God for the Chinese.
In this essay, the Sage will explain one of the most powerful concepts the Chinese use to think about their world: the Mandate of Heaven - Tian Ming (天命). In brief, the Mandate of Heaven is required for a ruler to rule China. Without the Mandate of Heaven, the ruler will be deposed and some new ruler whose actions and morality meet with Tian’s approval will - eventually - take power and rule China.
Tian Ming is a Requirement for Rule
All rulers of China have to have Tian Ming. If a ruler loses Tian’s approval, his reign will soon end. As one scholar said What heaven has abandoned cannot be propped up. (Kuo T’ai, d. 169 CE). Consequently, all rulers claim they have Tian Ming.
However, claims that one has the mandate of heaven are easy to make. To a degree, they are meaningless. The mere assertion, no matter how often repeated, that one has the mandate of heaven - and thus the right to rule China - is not enough. Such claims are treated as puffery by many at the time they are made. Only the passage of years proves, unambiguously, if a ruler had the mandate of heaven, or not.
Once a ruler has taken power and after some 20 years, he passes that power onto an heir, the presumption shifts, now the default position is: the current dynastic ruler of China does have the mandate of heaven, and any other person’s claim to have Tian Ming is presumptively false. A rival’s claim they now have Tian Ming might be true, but there is only one way to find out: the rival must take control over China and rule it well. In a very real sense, when you strip away all the rituals and the high-sounding verbiage, Chinese political theory is extremely pragmatic. If the ruler does a good job then he has the mandate of heaven. If he does a bad job, then he may have lost the mandate of heaven and it may be time to replace him with someone else.
Here are the signs of a ruler who has Tian Ming:
Tian Ming is displayed when the nation is at peace with it’s neighbors. War was felt to be an unnatural relationship between well run states.
For example: after Li Shimin (Taizong of Tang) tried to conquer Silla (the state that ruled Korea till 910 CE), no later Chinese governments waged war against Korea. Peaceful relations between Korea and China lasted from 676 CE till 1911 (the Sage skips over the Mongols who attacked Korea in 1220 to 1260, and he skips over the invasions of Korea by the Manchu in 1627 and 1636).
The relationship between China and Vietnam was characterized by just three wars over 900 years: the war in 1077, the conquest of Vietnam 1405-1426, and the attempt to reinstate the last Le king in 1789.
Compare this to the relationship between England and France who were always fighting wars, with rare years of peace mixed in, from 1080 till 1815. Or look at the history of Denmark and Sweden, who fought wars continuously from the Viking era until 1814, or really the relations between any two European nations who share a border. There are no examples of peaceful relations between two neighboring states in Europe which lasted for 1,000 years! The longest peace the Sage knows of is between Spain and Portugal from 1469 to 1578.
Tian Ming is displayed when the people are prosperous and well fed. In the 1800s, the Europeans dismissed the idea of the Mandate of Heaven, they thought it was based on mere superstition. After all, who can control famines? However, since the year 2000, we have concluded that famines are the result of wars or deliberate government mal-administration (Oxfam: Famines are not natural phenomena, they are catastrophic political failures. 2014). Consequently, when people in one province of China were starving, this was in fact a problem of governmental administration. A good government doesn’t have a problem with famines because a good government has been doing a good job of managing the grain storage facilities and merchants are easily able to transport food from places where it is cheap to places where prices are rising.
In a real sense, the Chinese were way ahead of the game on this. Famines were a sign of bad leadership.
Tian Ming is shown by a lack of floods. Again, one might think this is beyond any government’s power but the answer is more nuanced. Chinese governments, since at least the year 1,000 BCE have worked to control the Yellow River. Good governments build dykes and dams. Bad governments stop maintaining the dykes and allow the dams to fall apart. True, heavy rains can overwhelm even the best maintained water control systems. However, a good government is prepared for this, and keeps track of rainfall and rising waters. A well run government starts preparing people to move before the floods.
Thus, damaging floods indicate mal-administration but the relationship is not perfectly correlated.
Tian Ming is shown by just and honest officials supervising the people. Again, the government has control over the men it appoints to positions of authority. A good government appoints good, honest, hard-working people. A bad government appoints bad people and exerts no oversight on their actions. Once again, Tian Ming appears to be a pragmatic evaluation of Chinese leadership.
Tian Ming Means the Chinese Have Less Tolerance for Bad Government
It is a fact that the Chinese replace non-performing ruling families more rapidly than the Europeans. The Tang royal family ruled China from 620 to ~900 (roughly 280 years). The Song royal family ruled from 960 till 1276 (316 years). The Ming royal family ruled from 1368 to 1644 (276 years). The Qing ruled China from ~1650 till 1911 (about 260 years). By contrast, William the Conquerer’s family ruled England from 1066 till 1688 (about 600 years with a gap under Cromwell). The House of Valois-Burbon ruled France from 1350 to 1848 (about 475 years with a gap of 25 years starting in 1789). The Hapsburgs ruled Austria and larger territories from 1218 to 1918 (600 years).
On average, the Chinese remove their ruling family after 270 years. In Europe, the average ruling family stays in power for 560 years - more than double the span of time.
One reason why the European royal families ruled longer than Chinese families is that if thing went badly, it wasn’t really the fault of the European kings. If God choose to send plagues, famines, and wars to the people of England, France, Austria, Spain - well wasn’t the King’s fault was it? In China, it was always the Ruler’s fault.
European Kings made the argument they had royal blood, which meant they had a special right to rule. This royal blood implied that they had a special relationship to God - because how else could one acquire royal blood? It had to have been a gift from God. No man unrelated to the royals of Europe could claim the right to rule, although how exactly these few families had gained royal blood was conveniently lost in the mist of the dark ages.
By contrast, in China, any man could gain the mandate of heaven. Two notable founders of Chinese dynasties stand out: Liu Bang and Zhu Yuan-zhang. Liu Bang - the founder of the Han Dynasty - came from an unimportant family and he had one of the lowest ranking jobs in the government when he began his rebellion against the second (and last) ruler of the Qin. Zhu Yuan-zhang - the founder of the Ming Dynasty - was orphaned at the age of 14, and his family had been poor peasants. There is no man in all of European history who came from such a humble background and rose to become a king.
Gaining the mandate of heaven and starting a dynasty in China had nothing to do with what your ancestors had done, and everything to do with what you did, and how you lived.
Tian Ming is powerful idea. On the one hand, Tian Ming gives authority and legitimacy to a ruler of China when he does the right thing. On the other hand, any ruler’s legitimacy is conditional. If bad things happen, it is reasonable for Chinese people to conclude that the Huangdi has lost the mandate of heaven and he should be deposed. We see Chinese rulers worried about this all the time. They know their history, and so do all of their advisors - if you rule badly, if you don’t select the best men to run the nation, if you don’t follow the ritual behaviors - you may be deposed.
Losing The Mandate of Heaven
Being removed from power in China was not fun. Unlike in Europe where the nobility tended to treat the family members of ousted kings with respect, in China the punishment for failure was dire for everyone in the top levels of the government. Here is what usually happened when a dynasty lost the mandate of heaven:
The royal family would all be executed. All the relatives of the royal family would also be killed to prevent future pretenders to the throne from emerging. Typically this involved the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of men, women, and children. For example: when the Ming Dynasty lost control of Beijing in 1644, there were an estimated 100,000 members of the extended Ming family. It seems that a great majority of them were killed over the next 50 years.
The capital city of the previous dynasty would be destroyed. The old palace would either be taken apart and used to build a new palace in a different city, or it would be burned down. As everyone knows, in Europe the old palaces maybe remodeled but the capital stays the same.
Note: the Qing did not burn down the Ming palace, which is why it still stands in the center of Beijing today. This is unusual in Chinese history. None of the other Chinese palaces outlived their dynasties. The Tang capital city of Chang’an was burned down at least two times. Both Song capitals (Kaifeng and Lin-an) were demolished in the years following their fall.
The royal tombs would often be looted and desecrated.
Some of the royal tombs of the Tang are still intact, but apparently none of the Sung Dynasty tombs were left undisturbed.
Although the Qing killed thousands of the royal family of the Ming, they protected the Ming tombs and even rebuilt the great hall of sacrifice which had been destroyed in the spring of 1644, by Li Zicheng’s army. Looting of old king’s tombs did not happen in Europe, nor in Korea.
The net result of all this was that Chinese rulers were highly motivated to do a good job ruling the country.
Further, the top advisors to the Chinese ruler were also highly motivated to do a good job because when the dynasty fell, the men who worked for the government were usually killed and their property was confiscated.
Note: The Chinese scholar class made a virtue out of necessity by telling stories about how it was noble to kill oneself after the fall of a dynasty - actual examples of this can be found but they are uncommon.
To the Sage’s knowledge, there are no examples of families whose members were senior government officials and yet they maintained their wealth following the transition from the Ming to the Qing dynasty in the 1640s and 50s. In the transition from the Yuan to the Ming in the 1370s, we know that the new Ming government seized the estates of nearly all the wealthy men who had previously worked for the Yuan Dynasty. The same sort of thing seems to have occurred when Zhao Kuanyin (Taizong of Song) conquered all of China in 970.
The contrast with Europe is stark: kings are replaced in England, France, Austria, Denmark, Poland and usually the major nobles sail on without much loss. True, there were exceptions: when William conquered England, the Anglo-Saxon nobility lost most of their land. Also, when the French revolutionaries took the power from Louis 17, they seized the estates of 90% of the French nobility and executed thousands. However, after Napoleon was forced into exile in 1815, many of the surviving French nobility had their estates returned.
Communication with Heaven was two way
The Sage finds it interesting that an important part of the monthly rituals conducted by the Huangdi consisted of messages to heaven, reporting on what the government had done and asking for assistance with pressing issues. Every few months, the Huangdi - often it was one of his brothers - would preside over a ceremony in which a report of what the government was doing would be written on silk or fine paper and then burned. The idea being that the smoke would carry the words and thoughts of the ruler of China to Tian.
In a sense, this was bi-monthly report to God, and it had to be accurate. The Ministry of Rites did not appreciate suggestions that their reports to Tian would be false. Lying to the Huangdi was a capital offense, lying to Tian? Sounds like a big mistake.
The result was, the Huangdi had a pretty good idea of how well, or badly, things were going in his government. The Sage is aware of several English monarchs who seemed to have no interest or understanding of what was happening in their country when they were king.
How did Tian communicate back to the government?
The main methods by which Tian was believed to communicate to the Chinese were:
Stones from Heaven. There are many reports over the last 2,500 about stones which fall from the sky and are revealed to have characters written on them (strangely, this only happens in China). No matter what characters they are, this was usually a bad omen.
Children’s rhymes. The earliest story about this dates from the time of Confucius when children were reported as signing a rhyme which could be interpreted as an ill omen for the current ruler. There was a belief that Tian communicated his will to the people through feelings. So the innocent children might be expected to sing a nonsense rhyme which actually expresses Tian’s disapproval of the government. Naturally, the obvious response is: someone who dislikes the current government secretly pays some children to repeat the rhyme - it’s got nothing to do with Heaven. This is specifically mentioned in an early episode of the TV series: The Longest Day in Chang’an.
Floods and Earthquakes. As mentioned above. Every time a flood or an earthquake occurred, it was a bad omen for the current government.
Comets in the night sky or novas or - worst of all - solar eclipses. There was small group of men in the Chinese government who watched the skies - the astronomers of the court. Sometimes they reported good news, especially when the stars predicted trouble for the Mongols!
Note: The Jesuits gained a great deal of status in the late Ming and early Qing court due to their ability to accurately predict lunar eclipses. However, once it became clear that lunar eclipses were entirely predictable, it also became clear that Tian was not talking to the Chinese government via such events. So the Jesuits lost status after gaining it.
Peasant Revolts. This was obvious. If the people felt the will of heaven, then if masses of people revolted against the government, this must say something about what the Tian was thinking.
How Seriously Did the Chinese Take Communication with Heaven?
The Chinese were excellent scholars of history. They could see that some Huangdi who were very careful in their practice of the monthly rituals had terrible things happen, while other rulers who were clearly insincere in their adherence to the rituals lived well and had successful reigns.
One of the biggest problems the Chinese faced with regard to Tian’s power - or rather lack of power - was the conquest of the Song Dynasty by the Mongols under Kublai Khan. The Mongols were not Chinese. They didn’t perform the same rituals and they didn’t respect Chinese customs. And yet… Tian had allowed these people to take over China, capturing and killing off the previous royal family of China.
How could this have happened? Was Tian even real?
There were two responses to the Mongol conquest of the Song. The first was to shout loudly: The Yuan Dynasty has Tian Ming - they are the rulers with Heaven’s Mandate!
The Mongols were - to a small degree - willing to play along with the notion they had Tian Ming. After all, they were only a few million Mongols ruling over a nation of some 100 million Chinese. If having some old men perform a few rituals every year would convince some 10 million Chinese men to remain loyal to the Yuan - fine. The Mongols were willing to do this much.
To this day, most Chinese historians still consider the Yuan Dynasty to be one of the important Chinese Dynasties. The Sonoma Sage rejects this interpretation of the past. The Yuan Dynasty was run by a group of evil Mongols who hated China and everything it stood for. The Yuan Dynasty should never be linked with the Tang, the Song, the Ming or the Qing. The Yuan Dynasty is more like the Jin Dynasty than anything else.
Note: the Mongols seriously contemplated committing genocide on the people of Northern China. They openly discussed killing off the entire population of Northern China - driving them off the land - and turning the farmland and cities into grasslands for the Mongols to ride horses on. Although Kublai Khan decided not to carry out this plan, the Mongols were that evil. If the Sonoma Sage seems biased against the Mongols, its because the Sonoma Sage is biased against the Mongols.
The second response by the Chinese was to take a long view of history and say Yes, the Mongols had the Mandate of Heaven, but only briefly. They lost the Mandate after 50 years of immoral rule and the Ming regained it.
This long view is correct in some sense, but how much use is Tian if it is willing bestow it’s blessing for 50 or 80 years on immoral rulers who have no respect for Chinese laws and customs?
Note: the Qing were completely different from the Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty. The Manchu leaders always claimed they were better and more moral people than the later Ming rulers and their officials. The Qing government publicly stated they had Tian Ming because they were better than the Ming at following Chinese virtues - they were more respectful of ritual; more responsive to the wishes of the people; more frugal. The Sage thinks the Manchu were not simply lying to win support. The Sage thinks the Manchu held themselves to very high standards of behavior, at least until 1800. If the Sonoma Sage seems biased in favor of the Manchu that is because he is biased in favor of the Manchu.
At one time, the Huangdi would make a big pilgrimage to a mountain - usually Mount Tai - accompanied by the court and most of the army. This was the Great Ritual, or Feng Shan. It was very expensive and only done when the the Huangdi had a lot of wealth and thought that things were going well. There was a notion that the Huangdi might gain the attention of one of the immortals - the mother goddess of the West - and thus commune with an agent of Tian. However, very few Huangdi who performed the ritual gained anything from it, and no divine beings appeared. The ritual was abandoned after Haungdi Zhenzong performed it in 1012 CE.
Tian Ming in the Modern World
The Sonoma Sage asserts the Chinese belief in the Mandate of Heaven is still widespread today. The reason is that the belief in Tian Ming captures an important truth about human life and human governance. Institutions decay over time. Agencies become filled with time-wasters and money-hungry people who only pretend to do the job they were hired to do. All civilizations go through periods of growth, followed by stability and then decay.
History never stops. Humanity doesn’t simply go from one new height to the next.
However that is a topic for another day.